The paper

Preprint on arXiv

Before this paper was published in PeerJ, we posted a preprint on arXiv, a service that is used ubiquitously in maths, physics and astronomy, but less often in biology. (The existence of this preprint in 2012 is why the URL of this page has that year in it.) The reference for the preprint is:

High-resolution figures

The following high-resolution versions of the figures from the paper are for the benefit of scientists and reporters. Feel free to reproduce or modify these (with attribution) for use in scientific scholarly literature and elsewhere.

Figure 4. Extent of soft tissue on ostrich and sauropod necks. 1, ostrich neck in cross section from Wedel (2003, figure 2). Bone is white, air-spaces are black, and soft tissue is grey. 2, hypothetical sauropod neck with similarly proportioned soft-tissue. (Diplodocusvertebra silhouette modified from Paul 1997, figure 4A). The extent of soft tissue depicted greatly exceeds that shown in any published life restoration of a sauropod, and is unrealistic. 3, More realistic sauropod neck. It is not that the soft-tissue is reduced but that the vertebra within is enlarged, and mass is reduced by extensive pneumaticity in both the bone and the soft-tissue.

Figure 6. Basic cervical vertebral architecture in archosaurs, in posterior and lateral views. 1, seventh cervical vertebra of a turkey, Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, 1758, traced from photographs by MPT. 2, fifth cervical vertebra of the abelisaurid theropod Majungasaurus crenatissimus Depéret, 1896,UA 8678, traced from O’Connor (2007, figures 8 and 20). In these taxa, the epipophyses and cervical ribs are aligned with the expected vectors of muscular forces. The epipophyses are both larger and taller than the neural spine, as expected based on their mechanical importance. The posterior surface of the neurapophysis is covered by a large rugosity, which is interpreted as an interspinous ligament scar like that of birds (O’Connor, 2007). Because this scar covers the entire posterior surface of the neurapophysis, it leaves little room for muscle attachments to the spine. 3, fifth cervical vertebra of Alligatormississippiensis Daudin, 1801, MCZ 81457, traced from 3D scans by Leon Claessens, courtesy of MCZ. Epipophyses are absent. 4, eighth cervical vertebra of Giraffatitan brancai(Janensch, 1914) paralectotype HMN SII, traced from Janensch (1950, figures 43 and 46). Abbreviations: cr, cervical rib; e, epipophysis; ns, neural spine; poz, postzygapophysis.

Figure 10. Real and speculative muscle attachments in sauropod cervical vertebrae. 1, the second through seventeenth cervical vertebrae of Euhelopus zdanskyi Wiman, 1929 cotype specimen PMU R233a-δ(“Exemplar a”). 2, cervical 14 as it actually exists, with prominent but very short epipophyses and long cervical ribs. 3, cervical 14 as it would appear with short cervical ribs. The long ventral neck muscles would have to attach close to the centrum. 4, speculative version of cervical 14 with the epipophyses extended posteriorly as long bony processes. Such processes would allow the bulk of both the dorsal and ventral neck muscles to be located more posteriorly in the neck, but they are not present in any known sauropod or other non-avian dinosaur. Modified from Wiman (1929, plate 3).

Figures from the preprint

Three of the figures changed between the version of the paper that was posted as a preprint on arXiv and the final published version on PeerJ. The figures shown above are the final published versions. Here are the full-resolution versions of the three arXiv figures that were subsequently changed.

Figure 1 originally included Deinocheirus, which was subsequently excised from the paper at the editor’s request. Tanystropheus was added. The original figure’s human skull, giraffe, ostrich, Paraceratherium, Therizinosaurus and Gigantoraptor were all copyright-encumbered, so were replaced by versions that can be distributed under CC BY.

Original Figure 1. Necks of long-necked non-sauropods, to the same scale. The giraffe and Paraceratherium are the longest necked mammals; the ostrich is the longest necked extant bird; Therizinosaurus, Deinocheirus and Gigantoraptor are the longest necked representatives of the three long-necked theropod clades and Arambourgiania is the longest necked pterosaur. Arambourgiania scaled from Zhejiangopterusmodified from Witton and Naish (2008, figure 1). Other image sources as for Figure 2. Alternating pink and blue bars are one meter in height.

Similarly, Figure 2 originally included Deinocheirus, which was subsequently excised and Tanystropheus added. The original Paraceratherium, Therizinosaurus and Gigantoraptor. being copyright-encumbered, were replaced by versions that can be distributed under CC BY.

In the original figure 3, sauropod necks from various sources were used. We replaced these with Scott Hartman’s reconstructions (except for Hatcher’s Diplodocus) partly for consistency and partly to avoid copyright encumbrance.

Original Figure 3. Necks of long-necked sauropods, to the same scale. Diplodocus, modified from elements in Hatcher (1901, plate 3), represents a “typical” long-necked sauropod, familiar from many mounted skeletons in museums. Puertasaurus modified from Wedel (2007a, figure 4-1). Sauroposeidon scaled from Brachiosaurus artwork by Dmitry Bogdanov, via commons.wikimedia.org (CC-BY-SA). Mamenchisaurus modified from Young and Zhao (1972, figure 4). Supersaurus scaled from Diplodocus, as above. Alternating pink and blue bars are one meter in width. Inset shows Figure 1 to the same scale.

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